Non-Mortem: Oklahoma City Thunder
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:30 am
Time of death: None
Record at elimination: 68-14 (16-7 in playoffs)
Head coach: Mark Daigneault
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/oklahoma-city-thunder/yearly
Contract summary:
SGA – extension eligible, or 2yr/80M remain
Hartenstein – 2yr/59M remain, final year 28M TO
Dort – extension eligible, or 2yr/38M remain, final year 17M TO
Isaiah Joe – 3yr/34M remain, final year 11M TO
Aaron Wiggins – 4yr/35M remain, final year 8M TO
Caruso – 4yr/80M extension begins next season
Kenrich Williams – extension eligible, or 2yr/14M remain, final year 7M TO
Rookie Scale/minimums (varies on 2-4 years remaining):
Jalen Williams – extension eligible, or 6.5M QO
Holmgren – extension eligible, or 13M QO
Ousmane Dieng – extension eligible, or 6.6M QO
Cason Wallace – 2yr remain
Nikola Topic – 3yr remain (injured, ACL)
Jaylin Williams – extension eligible, or 2M TO
Dillon Jones – 3yr remain
AJ Mitchell – 3M TO
TW
Branden Carlson
Alex Ducas
Adam Flagler
Dead-cap – 3.7M off the books this year, NONE retained next
Capspace – over the cap, non-tax team
PICKS for 2025 draft:
MIA 1st
LAC 1st
ATL 2nd
A SMALL SEASON REVIEW:
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/okc/seasontype/2
In what was one of the most dominant regular seasons in NBA history, the Thunder made an absolutely terrifying impression on its competition. We’ll touch on the stats soon, hold tight.
In the playoff bracket, the Thunder forced its defense on other teams, but was undeniably led by the 2025 MVP & FMVP, Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. OKC overcame playoff pressure to win it all. [noting that, the only OKC player that had previously been to an NBA Finals was specialist Alex Caruso in 2020 with the LA Lakers].
After beating Memphis, Denver, Minnesota, and Indiana in four consecutive series, the OKC Thunder won the final NBA playoff game of the season, and are the 2025 NBA Championship! Congrats to them, and their fans! It was well deserved from the statistical best team in the NBA this year.
Now lets hit some key observations from the Thunder’s impressive run to NBA Glory:
The Thunder’s first official NBA Title comes in the wake of a devastating RS. One which they won 68 games (54 by double digits, an NBA record), and lost only 14 RS games. The playoff record for OKC was 16-7. Losses were DEN-3, IND-3, MIN-1. They showed cracks in the seven game series against both Denver and Indiana. Despite those issues, the Thunder persevered to win the Championship.
OKC recorded NBA-Record net-rating (+12.9), and SRS (+12.7), a league leading defense (107.5PPG), and two All-NBA players (SGA (All-NBA 1st team), Jalen Williams (All-NBA 3rd team) – and a lot of young pesky defenders that bought into their roles. The regular season showcased that this team generated advantages consistently and didn’t normally lose big leads, no matter who they played. Shockingly, OKC has an average age of 25.5 years old – and they earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with two weeks of regular season play to go. This surely is auspicious for the Association as a whole.
One thing the Thunder didn’t do often was play in close games (14 RS wins of less than 10 pts), which affected some of their late-game performances in the playoffs. Also, playoff basketball is a lot more intense, and the overall youth of the team, and the coach (Mark Daigneault), both led to some head-scratching moments, and games were a lot closer than advertised. Denver and Indiana both hit game-winners against OKC – and both had convincingly large wins. Minnesota had a huge win by 30+ pts, and Memphis was looking dangerous before Morant hurt his hip. Overall, OKC won each series, but had games where they looked very uncomfortable on the road. Without Haliburton, OKC overpowered the Pacers in G7, but it would have been an epic conclusion without the injury. Sadly some star players went down with serious injuries this playoffs, but OKC had their injury issues in the RS.
OKC wins via an MVP player on the roster with a bunch of “3-and-D” guys, essentially. SGA put in an incredibly consistent year, and all his comrades seemed to rise even higher than before – Jalen Williams also earning All-NBA 3rd team accolades. Even with Holmgren missing a large chunk of the year with a hip injury, this team still powered through it relatively well.
To gameplan efficiently, teams needed to conquer the pressure defense and stop the MVP. Ultimately, that wasn’t as easy as advertised, and contentious among NBA fans.
The Thunder’s pressure affected how the game was called as well. I would like to note here that I am a Thunder fan as well as the Supersonics, and can admit through my biases that there were indeed times where the officials did make a difference in the Thunder’s year. Now, by and large, I do not complain too much about refereeing, but it is important to note that perhaps the NBA’s stance on defensive pressure is changing. If they allow more pressure in this way, other teams surely need to adjust and do the same – because it was effective for OKC, and I noticed it. It made a difference in these playoff games.
After falling to Dallas in R2 last year, this team was looking for answers to get better. Than answer was apparently as easy as trading Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso straight up, and signing Hartenstein to a solid 3-yr deal as he was a Free Agent. Those two moves, plus a relatively similar roster, led to positive results. Hartenstein was a perfect addition in the post, and Caruso’s tenacious defense really made life difficult for other teams. Shout out to GM Sam Presti for these winning moves.
Now that the offseason is here, OKC has a collection of contract questions to address - primarily Holmgren and Jalen Williams. But there are other players still in need of extensions, and 3 draft picks (#15, #24, #44) incoming with zero roster spots available unless trades or waives occur.
One thing is for sure, those are “good problems” to have after winning a Title, and surely the key rostered players will get paid, and the deeper bench will be rotated slightly in the coming season.
Congrats to the OKC Thunder and their fans as the only team to avoid the graveyard, and survive the season as the champion.
Importantly, how do you rate this season for the Thunder, and what do you think of their prospects going forward ?
Record at elimination: 68-14 (16-7 in playoffs)
Head coach: Mark Daigneault
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/oklahoma-city-thunder/yearly
Contract summary:
SGA – extension eligible, or 2yr/80M remain
Hartenstein – 2yr/59M remain, final year 28M TO
Dort – extension eligible, or 2yr/38M remain, final year 17M TO
Isaiah Joe – 3yr/34M remain, final year 11M TO
Aaron Wiggins – 4yr/35M remain, final year 8M TO
Caruso – 4yr/80M extension begins next season
Kenrich Williams – extension eligible, or 2yr/14M remain, final year 7M TO
Rookie Scale/minimums (varies on 2-4 years remaining):
Jalen Williams – extension eligible, or 6.5M QO
Holmgren – extension eligible, or 13M QO
Ousmane Dieng – extension eligible, or 6.6M QO
Cason Wallace – 2yr remain
Nikola Topic – 3yr remain (injured, ACL)
Jaylin Williams – extension eligible, or 2M TO
Dillon Jones – 3yr remain
AJ Mitchell – 3M TO
TW
Branden Carlson
Alex Ducas
Adam Flagler
Dead-cap – 3.7M off the books this year, NONE retained next
Capspace – over the cap, non-tax team
PICKS for 2025 draft:
MIA 1st
LAC 1st
ATL 2nd
A SMALL SEASON REVIEW:
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/okc/seasontype/2
In what was one of the most dominant regular seasons in NBA history, the Thunder made an absolutely terrifying impression on its competition. We’ll touch on the stats soon, hold tight.
In the playoff bracket, the Thunder forced its defense on other teams, but was undeniably led by the 2025 MVP & FMVP, Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. OKC overcame playoff pressure to win it all. [noting that, the only OKC player that had previously been to an NBA Finals was specialist Alex Caruso in 2020 with the LA Lakers].
After beating Memphis, Denver, Minnesota, and Indiana in four consecutive series, the OKC Thunder won the final NBA playoff game of the season, and are the 2025 NBA Championship! Congrats to them, and their fans! It was well deserved from the statistical best team in the NBA this year.
Now lets hit some key observations from the Thunder’s impressive run to NBA Glory:
The Thunder’s first official NBA Title comes in the wake of a devastating RS. One which they won 68 games (54 by double digits, an NBA record), and lost only 14 RS games. The playoff record for OKC was 16-7. Losses were DEN-3, IND-3, MIN-1. They showed cracks in the seven game series against both Denver and Indiana. Despite those issues, the Thunder persevered to win the Championship.
OKC recorded NBA-Record net-rating (+12.9), and SRS (+12.7), a league leading defense (107.5PPG), and two All-NBA players (SGA (All-NBA 1st team), Jalen Williams (All-NBA 3rd team) – and a lot of young pesky defenders that bought into their roles. The regular season showcased that this team generated advantages consistently and didn’t normally lose big leads, no matter who they played. Shockingly, OKC has an average age of 25.5 years old – and they earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with two weeks of regular season play to go. This surely is auspicious for the Association as a whole.
One thing the Thunder didn’t do often was play in close games (14 RS wins of less than 10 pts), which affected some of their late-game performances in the playoffs. Also, playoff basketball is a lot more intense, and the overall youth of the team, and the coach (Mark Daigneault), both led to some head-scratching moments, and games were a lot closer than advertised. Denver and Indiana both hit game-winners against OKC – and both had convincingly large wins. Minnesota had a huge win by 30+ pts, and Memphis was looking dangerous before Morant hurt his hip. Overall, OKC won each series, but had games where they looked very uncomfortable on the road. Without Haliburton, OKC overpowered the Pacers in G7, but it would have been an epic conclusion without the injury. Sadly some star players went down with serious injuries this playoffs, but OKC had their injury issues in the RS.
OKC wins via an MVP player on the roster with a bunch of “3-and-D” guys, essentially. SGA put in an incredibly consistent year, and all his comrades seemed to rise even higher than before – Jalen Williams also earning All-NBA 3rd team accolades. Even with Holmgren missing a large chunk of the year with a hip injury, this team still powered through it relatively well.
To gameplan efficiently, teams needed to conquer the pressure defense and stop the MVP. Ultimately, that wasn’t as easy as advertised, and contentious among NBA fans.
The Thunder’s pressure affected how the game was called as well. I would like to note here that I am a Thunder fan as well as the Supersonics, and can admit through my biases that there were indeed times where the officials did make a difference in the Thunder’s year. Now, by and large, I do not complain too much about refereeing, but it is important to note that perhaps the NBA’s stance on defensive pressure is changing. If they allow more pressure in this way, other teams surely need to adjust and do the same – because it was effective for OKC, and I noticed it. It made a difference in these playoff games.
After falling to Dallas in R2 last year, this team was looking for answers to get better. Than answer was apparently as easy as trading Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso straight up, and signing Hartenstein to a solid 3-yr deal as he was a Free Agent. Those two moves, plus a relatively similar roster, led to positive results. Hartenstein was a perfect addition in the post, and Caruso’s tenacious defense really made life difficult for other teams. Shout out to GM Sam Presti for these winning moves.
Now that the offseason is here, OKC has a collection of contract questions to address - primarily Holmgren and Jalen Williams. But there are other players still in need of extensions, and 3 draft picks (#15, #24, #44) incoming with zero roster spots available unless trades or waives occur.
One thing is for sure, those are “good problems” to have after winning a Title, and surely the key rostered players will get paid, and the deeper bench will be rotated slightly in the coming season.
Congrats to the OKC Thunder and their fans as the only team to avoid the graveyard, and survive the season as the champion.
Importantly, how do you rate this season for the Thunder, and what do you think of their prospects going forward ?